Black Friday continued to take over Thanksgiving this year, expanding into a whole booming Cyber Week that set shopping records focused on mobile.

According to Adobe Analytics, online shopping on Thanksgiving Day was up 28% over last year (the fastest-growing day for e-commerce sales in history). Smartphone drove a majority of the traffic (54%) and over a third of the revenue (37%). Thanksgiving day was also the first day in 2018 to gain $1 billion in sales from smartphones.

Salesforce predicts that 40% of 2018’s retail revenue will happen over this long Thanksgiving weekend.

Yet, in the midst of this Black Friday Deal stampede, I still like that there is still room for brands to carve out a distinct identity. REI took a stand four years ago against Black Friday and they’ve been expanding that platform ever since. Their OptOutside campaign started with a bold decision to close all of its retail stores on the biggest shopping day of the year, giving every employee the day off to enjoy the outdoors and encouraging everyone else to do the same. They’re now looking more what this approach means more broadly.

“When we started this four years ago, it was that consumerism was spinning out of control, in a frenzy of consumption–I’ve got to have it, I need it, I’ll leave Thanksgiving dinner early to go get it.

“This year it feels like the cultural context has changed. Now choice is something we talk a lot about. Choice in terms of the notion of our relationship with technology—are we using it to springboard toward the things we care about, or is it distracting us from those things?”

2 Comments

Delighted to hear that REI took a stand against Black Friday. The extension to Black Week has made this the even uglier face of consumerism. Whilst sales growth shows it is a success for retailers, I cannot help thinking it is a failure for society.

I also agree with REI’s approach to closing their stores and urging us all to Opt Outside. In contrast, I was dismayed to see JC Penney television ads that showed people leaving their family at the Thanksgiving dinner table to go shopping instead. I know they aren’t alone but really JC Penney?